Fated to the Forge
by Kingofclubs8129
Summary: Family can be important, especially if you've never had any. Even if seperated the bonds remain, the ties that bind them call out to the universe with the promise of reunion. By the way of the ninja...or the strength of heart...this family will be whole once again. Collaboration with Michael Fri of The Black Scepter.
1. Love Me When I'm Gone

I stood there shocked as I tried to take in what my teacher had just told me."How could you keep this from me?" I couldn't believe it, how could they have known something like this all along and not told me? I stared down at the picture my sensei had just given me of my mother and sister and I when we were just babies only moments after our birth. I couldn't understand how they could do this to me. "Kakashi-sensei, how could you not have told me this?"

My erstwhile sensei for once had a somber look on the small portion of his face that was visible. "I am sorry, Naruto, but there was nothing you could do to find Kairi, she disappeared in the confusion of the Kyuubi's rampage. I looked for her everywhere but there was no sign of her."

I felt a growl bubble up from my throat as I snarled at him "So you just gave up on finding _MY SISTER?"_ The air seemed to crackle with unseen pressure and I felt my teeth start to lengthen as my rage mounted "You left me alone and abandoned the only family I had left to her fate, and you never even TOLD ME SHE EXISTED!"

My vision turned red for a moment and I lunged at my sensei, claw-like hands grasping for the vulnerable flesh of his neck. A pair of arms wrapped around my midsection as I was forcibly yanked backwards I heard the voice of my godfather shouting to me from what seemed to be a long way off "Naruto! Calm down, the Kyuubi is taking control!"

Kakashi was just in front of me, only a few measly feet and all I had to do was get a little farther. His silver hair was as gravity defying as usual but his single visible eye was open in alarm, Id give him something to be alarmed about! In the corner of the room Tsunade-baachan was looking on worriedly as Jiraiya tried to wrestle me away from my jounin sensei. "Naruto" Jiraya shouted in my ear "You're no good to Kairi like this, if you let the Kyuubi take control who's going to find her?"

I stopped cold, he was right, this anger was clouding my thinking and that was something I couldn't afford, not if I wanted to find my sister. My body went limp. Suddenly drained from the emotional roller coaster it had gone through so quickly. I took deep shaking breaths as I forced my muscles to relax and my surging chakra to settle. My claws shifted back to fingers and my teeth slowly shortened to regular incisors. In all the years I have been aware of the Kyuubi's presence I had never come closer to it taking over than I had just then. My godfather relaxed a bit from where he was holding me, letting me down to my feet and from there allowing me to sink down to my knees. I looked desolately at the carpet of the Hokages office and saw to my shock that there were wet spots speckling the floor beneath me. I was about to tell Tsunade-baachan that someone had spilled something on her floor until I saw another drop roll of my face and drop to the floor. I was crying.

Tsunade-baachan was looking at me with a look of pity on her face and that only made the sobs wrack my body even harder. I collapsed the rest of the way onto the floor and continued to weep. My godfather put his hand on my shoulder and heard his voice "We WILL find her gaki, I promise you that, that's the reason we finally told you, I've spent the last fourteen years designing a sealing array that would allow us to locate anyone with Minato's blood in their veins. It's finally done, I wanted to tell you really I did, but without having any way to find her I knew knowing would only hurt you. But now we can finally do something about it."

I looked at him with a new light in my eyes. "You're right Ero-Sennin,, sitting here getting mad doesn't accomplish anything, I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei when you guys told me I just lost control. I understand why you waited to tell me..." they all seemed to relax a bit and looked rather relieved, "but that doesn't mean I can forgive it."

They all tensed back up and looked at me with wide eyes. "I can understand in my head that it was for the best, but in my heart I can't forgive you for taking away the knowledge that I wasn't really alone, even if it saved me pain. I'll work with you all to find Kairi but I'll still need some time to forgive you, I think I can but it wont be quick."

The three most important adults in my life looked at me sadly and it was Tsunade-baachan who spoke up "We do understand Naruto, and we know that hearing this must have been hard, but you have to understand that the way you lost it just now was part of the reason we never said anything, however we have no intention of being anything but helpful in your mission to find your sister." I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for letting my temper get the best of me like that, I was so angry at them but I would never want to kill Kakashi-sensei no matter how mad I got.

The fact that I had tried it, or was even stupid enough to think it was possible for me was a testament to how lost in the Kyuubi's blood lust I had really been. Then I thought back to what she had said and my eyes widened.

"Wait mission?" She smiled at me encouragingly "Of course, this will be an S-rank mission with full pay. You'll be leading it and as such can pick your own team for the trip. Sadly I can't send Jiraya with you, he has to stay to operate the sealing array, but you can pick any other ninja in the village jounin included, you can have a four man squad as per mission norm."

My eyes widened at that really generous offer, I was still pretty angry at them but they really were doing everything possible to help. I appreciated the gesture and if they could help me find Kairi it would go a long way towards me forgiving them. I paused for a moment to think about who would be best for my team. "Well I'd like Shikamaru, and Kakashi-sensei. I think that being able to access the minds of people we meet on or journey would help us in our search so I'd also like Ino to come with us." They all nodded in understanding at my choices. This next part was where I'd encounter some resistance. I turned to my sensei. "Kakashi-sensei it would go a long way towards me forgiving you if you could use your nin-dogs to get a message to Sasuke for me, if he agrees I would like for him to be my fourth team member."

My sensei's single visible eye widened and with it both eyes of the other two people present. Tsunade-baachan looked like she wanted to yell that there was no way and punch me into the wall like she usually would but she tried to be diplomatic about her displeasure in lieu of her recent indiscretion. "Naruto, Sasuke is a missing-nin he's been declared a criminal and has a sizable bounty. Not to mention he severed ties with konoha, what makes you think he would ever agree to help?"

I looked at her somberly for a moment before I spoke, choosing my words carefully, "because Sasuke knows how it feels to be alone in this world, and even if he doesn't admit it he does still care about me. He told me last time we saw each other that he left me alive at the valley of the end because in order to get the mangekyo he'd have to kill his best friend. He knows what its like to lose your whole family and he is still my friend, he may be missing-nin but he's still an orphan, and still my brother in every way that matters." I reached down to Tsunade-baachans desk and picked up a piece of paper, I spent a few minutes composing and writing a letter. After finishing I handed it over to Kakashi-sensei. "If you get this to him and come with me, I'll forgive you."

He looked at me seriously for a moment and then nodded, he made a handseal and a second later there was a puff of smoke and Pakkun, one of sensei's nin-dogs appeared. He handed off the letter and gave Pakkun his instructions. The ninken nodded gravely, being able to sense the tension in the room and with a nod to the other took of to find Sasuke. I looked at Tsunade-baachan and saw her worrying her lip in an anxious fashion, I smiled at her encouragingly "Don't worry baachan I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket. If Sasuke declines or doesn't show up I'll take Neji, the Byakugan could prove useful in tracking Kairi down when we get to wherever she is. I'll give him three days to reply, I have to inform my team and gather my supplies anyway." I smiled at her again. "We'll reconvene in three days time, I'm going to approach Ino and Shikamaru about their new mission." With a final look at the people who cared so much about me I walked off into the afternoon, as I turned my back on them I couldn't help but feel that somehow, this would be the last time I would see the inside of that office.

* * *

I walked pensively and deliberately as I headed down the street to the Yamanka flower shop. I knew Ino probably the least out of the entire rookie nine, except for maybe Ten-Ten, but from everything I'd heard about the Yamanka clan's mind jutsu she could be invaluable for locating my sister. I reached the door to Yamanaka Flowers and taking a deep breath to steady myself I pulled open the door and walked inside, the cool air of the refrigeration seals keeping the flowers fresh smacked me in the face as I walked in and as I became chilled I took a deep breath and inhaled the heavy scent of various types of flowers. My nose, as a jinchuuriki is particularly good, though not as good as an Inuzuka like Kiba, the heavy scent still gave me a moment's pause. I paused for another moment when I got a look at the girl I was there to see.

Ino was gorgeous, there really wasn't any arguing about that, her long blonde hair tucked up into a ponytail and covering one of her ice-blue eyes. She wore a purple sleeveless top that she filled out *ahem* generously and a skirt that opened in the front to show black skintight shorts. She looked over as she heard me enter and her pink heart shaped mouth curved up into a smile "Naruto, its so good to see you, I don't think I've ever seen you in here before, here to buy flowers for a special lady?" she winked at me "I'm flattered, but I don't think it counts if you buy them from my shop."

I smiled at her good natured teasing "No, Ino I'm actually here to talk to you about a mission. I'm heading out on an S-class and I got to choose my team, I want you to be on it. Tsunade-baachan has already approved the request now all I need is your approval. I warn you though this may be a long term-mission." Her visible eye widened in surprise, and she seemed speechless. I smiled at her and handed her a folder. "This is the information on the mission and the meeting place. Let Tsunade-baachan know if you aren't going to be coming so I can plan accordingly." And without another word to her, I walked out of the cold flower shop and into the warm summer afternoon.

* * *

My next stop was sadly not refrigerated. It took me substantially longer to reach the compound where the Nara clan raise their deer. I approached the clan grounds making sure not to be to quiet. I had a feeling Shikamaru may have been sleeping and I didn't want to shock him if he was; this would be enough of an annoyance to him without me waking him suddenly.

As I suspected Shikamaru was sleeping with an arm over his face on a grassy hill overlooking his family's deer. I stopped short of my shadow falling over him and coughed to announce my presence. As I waited for him to wake up I noticed he still wore his usual konoha ninja garb. His chuunin vest over a blue shirt with blue pants. The only distinction in his clothes from any other shinobi was his hitai-ate tied around his arm instead of on his forehead. He didn't move his arm or look up as he asked "Who is it? Cant you see I'm trying to sleep here?"

I smiled wryly "Are you ever not trying to sleep? I have a favor I need to ask you."

Shikamaru as was his way sighed "Why are all my comrades so troublesome? What is it this time?"

I chuckled at his predictably lazy answer "I need your help on a mission." Before he could open his mouth I added,"Don't answer now, here is the information on the meeting place and the mission. It's S-rank and may be long term, but read the mission parameters before you answer. Tell Tsunade-baachan if you refuse so I can find a replacement in time." And before he could respond I walked away. I probably owed Shikamaru and Ino more of an explanation than I'd given them but I just couldn't bring myself to talk about Kairi yet. I ran my hand over the picture in my pocket. "I'm coming Kairi, don't worry, big brother will see you soon."

* * *

**2 Days Later**

The last member of my little party wasn't as easy to track down, but I had faith he would hear out what I'd said and at the very least come and tell me 'no' in person. I was obviously not surprised then when I heard a sharp tapping on my window in the middle of the night. I assumed he hadn't had any trouble bypassing everyone else in the village, I'd informed him in my letter that this was a secret mission and that he needn't face everyone in the village, I had assumed he wouldn't want to deal with the hassle and was apparently correct. I walked over to the window and opened it to see the somber face of my best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, missing-nin of Konoha, apprentice to Orochimaru of the sannin, and last heir of the Uchiha clan standing on a tree outside my window.

I smiled at him "Guess that means you're at least thinking about it teme?"

He looked at me impassively. "You're sure you can find her?"

It wasn't a rhetorical question, my friend wanted to know if he was giving up his chance for power, for vengeance for his clan, on a false hope. But I'd known he'd say yes; it might have seemed ridiculous to someone else, but Sasuke and I understood each other. We knew what family meant having lost ours early. Sasuke was the only one of my friends I'd ever felt truly understood me and that was how I knew he wouldn't say no. He would betray the village, he'd plan to kill me, he'd even sell his body to an unusually effeminate snake ninja, but Sasuke would never take away my chance to have family... not when Itachi had taken away his own. I smiled at my friend and held out my hand, and he took it. "Welcome to the team teme."

* * *

**Day of Departure**

I waited patiently next to Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei as Ero-Sennin drew the last of the seal array. Ino and Shikamaru were on either side of us shuffling nervously as they awaited the end of the process. After Sasuke had agreed to help he made clear it was only this one mission. He was no longer konoha ninja and he was not giving up his path of vengeance, he was helping me find my sister and afterward it was back to the way things had been. I told him I understood and that I appreciated the help. He told me to shut up and stop grinning like an idiot.

I could only marvel at the complexity of Ero-Sennin's array as he finished the last of the work on it. I had only been studying seals for a short time but I couldn't imagine anyone but maybe my father making anything that complex. I looked even more intricate than the seal on my belly. I took one last look at my friends around me and decided to say something to mark the occasion.

"I just wanted to thank you all for this. I know we aren't all close" I said looking at Ino "Or on the best of terms" this was directed at Sasuke, "But I appreciate the help and in the future if I can do anything to help you don't hesitate to ask. Now this is an S-rank mission and you will be paid accordingly fifty thousand ryo for every week we're gone. It will be placed in an account with the Hokage's personal treasury and will continue to accumulate until we get back for a period of up to two years. After two years have passed the transfers will stop in case we don't come back at all but if we return after that time any missed pay will be paid retroactively from the time the payments were stopped. Even for you teme. Any questions? No? Well then, lets get going." We stepped out onto the array and I gave my godfather a hug. "Thank you for spending so many years making sure I can do this."

He shook his head, "Don't thank me gaki, it was the least I could do, you just bring her back safe." I nodded to him and bit my thumb. I knelt down and took a breath looking back at my team. "Ready?" At their nods I touched my bloody thumb to the seal and I felt a rush of power at its activation, as the power reached up to overwhelm me I couldn't help but whisper "I'm coming little sister, wait for me."

Somehow I couldn't help but feel that someone, somewhere heard me, even if it might not have been Kairi.

* * *

_Once upon a time, there was a prince and princess born with a great destiny. The Prince, born of rage and darkness, would become a power far greater and feared by of all of society. A face of light is a deception to darkness. The Princess, born of love and hope, gave off a radiant light that infused all who surrounded her: her light would lead all to a great future._

I took the page and laid it down next to the other sketches, brushing off the lead from the paper I took my pencil to the page and continued to draw.

_The prince and princess were raised on a world of deep culture and unrest, joined with their mother and father their brief time together was a time of love and peace. All that changed though in one fell swoop...a family ruined...and in the darkness of that time, the princess was swept away into the night – never to be seen again._

Once the drawing was finished I placed it in a neat pile among the other sketches, turning back to the page with a sigh I continued my work.

_The Prince soon forgot his legacy and was raised in the ways of a ninja, a silent guardian...his powers of darkness and destruction honed to a blade of defense, to protect those who could not protect themselves. The Princess was raised by external family...until she was once again whisked away, to an island paradise that she would and forever will call home. The Prince lead a life of heroism and turmoil...while the Princess was soon to be swallowed by darkness, forever to be misused and mistreated._

Another page done, I slip it amongst the pile and begin the next page...possibly my most favorite page yet.

_Until her hero appeared, a boy with a great love for his friends took up a sword and embarked on a quest to rescue her: he was joined by a court wizard and a kind knight. The three of them traveled to many worlds and did great things. Finally, he found the great Princess of light and saved her for the threat of darkness. She stands on her island now...awaiting the return of her two friends, who are lost among the worlds._

I turned back to the two sketches of boy with silver hair and a boy with spiky brown hair.

_One fighting the war within himself, the war with the darkness in his heart that threatens to swallow him up again. The other...the other was tricked by a witch in white and now lays asleep, dreaming dreams of lost memories that he is trying to get back._

I looked over at the door beyond my small little room, I resisted to give a sad sigh and forced myself to turn my attentions over to my work. This story needed an ending...or at least a 'to be continued'.

_The Princess now waits on this island...waiting for her fallen knight and her hero to return to her; that day is coming sooner than she thinks for far away the Prince has rediscovered his destiny and will now do anything he can to find his lost sister. His journey will not be an easy one...and the success of his journey lies with his sister's Hero._

I stood up from the chair, my eyes turning to all the pencil sketches on the wall; black lead against the white walls was not easy to ignore, but I did anyway. I carried my notebook with me as I walked out of my private study and down the hall, stopping at the entrance for a moment...I hated going in this room. I had to check though, make sure he was doing all right...I opened the doors and stepped inside. The room was white like the rest of the castle, with three egg shaped pods in the center with three people resting in them. They were all the figures from my story so I knew them all very well.

The kind knight, "Goofy."

The court wizard, "Donald."

And at last, the Princess's Hero, "Sora."

I knew my role in this story of course, I was the witch, Namine. The one who led the Princess's Hero astray and making up for everything I have done to him, he will wake up soon...very soon...then I can send him on his way. That was the plan anyway...not my plan, his plan, DiZ's plan, but plans can change. I can feel them changing right now, destiny is rewriting itself...I can feel the changes. Once I was sure the three of them were all right I walked out of the room, instead of returning to my study and made my way to the castle's balcony. The night air was cold and brisk...with a wind coming from somewhere I couldn't discern...I leaned against the balcony and looked to the sky above, the stars above, the worlds up high.

"It won't be long now..."

I could not help but look to my final drawing, the prologue to the new story that was presenting itself right before my very eyes: the final drawing of The Prince fighting along side the Hero, the Wizard, and the Knight. I raised my dainty finger to the sky above, pointing to the star that shined the brightest in the sky. "I look forward to finally meeting you...Naruto."

* * *

**Ok this is Kingofclubs8129 this is a new collaboration story im doing with Michael Fri of The Black Scepter of Ghost Rider fame (the KH crossover not the movie). We're doing a long term Naruto KH crossover and Im really excited about this angle for the story and am interested to see how it turns out. Let us know what you think, I'll turn it over to TBS now.**

**Hello everyone, the nature of this crossover is rather delicate. As you read in the above chapter yes, we are going off a plot twist in which Naruto and Kairi are related. I'm sure you're all interested (or just plain out wondering) how this is all going to be accomplished? The story will tell over time, but there are a few things to jot down first: for the record this takes place pre-Kingdom Hearts II. This AU may or may not (we're still discussing this out) significantly change the plot of KH2. This is intended, we're not simply doing a "Naruto cameo" in the KH2 universe, this is a full blown Alternate Universe with new Disney worlds to include, new adventures, and the whole like. If you have trouble dealing with the fact this goes over where KH2 is supposed to be and want to leave we can't stop you, BUT we urge you to look at this story and take it as it is: a separate story with it's own rules and norms and that is a whole lot of fun. With all that delicate plot stuff out of the way, you now know what to look forward to in this new, exciting universe we are crafting. See you all then!**


	2. Life Starts Now

Smoke was all around us as the power withdrew from the seal array. I was still fairly disoriented by the trip but I was pretty sure that there was someone there with me at least. It looked like my friends had survived the trip to wherever it was that we had ended up. I peered around me, trying my damnedest to focus through the choking haze of airborne dirt. I could barely make out a shape beyond my outstretched hands. "Kakashi-sensei? Ino? Shika? Anyone there?" I barely managed to get the words out through the hacking coughs. I couldn't see my hands in front of my face, nevermind me team.

"Dobe." I heard Sasuke's voice choke out through the cloud to my left, I turned towards his voice and made a handseal. "_**FUUTON:DIATOPPA NO JUTSU" **_ I put as much energy into the wind jutsu as I felt I could spare in an unknown environment. The wind that bellowed forth from my mouth was weak in comparison to almost any time I've ever seen the jutsu performed but luckily for me you don't need a lot of wind to clear dust. The shroud of debris wafted away and left me reeling with relief to be able to breath and see again, I could see Sasuke in front of me but it seemed like we were alone. "Teme, where are the others?"

Sasuke has a wary look on his face and is glancing around "Dobe, I don't even know where WE are, what makes you think I'd have any idea where they went? I can tell you this though, wherever they are it isn't near here. My Sharingan would have spotted them even through the dust."

I couldn't help but worry over the fate of my friends, but even as I wondered where they could have gotten off to I realized Sasuke had been right. I didn't know where we were. I looked around me and tried to spot anything familiar about my surrounding, and couldn't help but gape in shock at what I saw. All around me was what appeared to be cliffs of purple stone, but that wasn't even the strangest part, atop the cliffs was what appeared to be a winding path of that same strange rock, forming a sort of rising road up to what could only have been described as some sort of strange twisted castle.

I saw Sasuke out of the corner of my eye taking in the view himself, and was just a tiny bit satisfied to see that he looked just as shocked as I was at the tableau around us As I glanced at Sasuke I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A solitary black speck in the distance, on one of the posts of the gate near the castle perched a single crow. Its beady eyes appeared to be trained directly on us and I couldn't help but feel like it was watching our every move. I turned to Sasuke and pitched my voice low "Do you see that bird over there?" There was an oppressive and sinister silence stifling the air, like if we didn't keep out voices down we would wake some dreadful beast sleeping away the centuries beneath that monstrous keep.

Sasuke seemed to feel it as much as I did, he kept his voice to a murmur as he replied "It's watching us, has been since I spotted it a minute ago, something about it seems wrong, it's paying to much attention to us for a carrion bird." I nodded in agreement and motioned toward the castle "We should go, as creepy as that place is I doubt we'll be getting any answers sitting out here in the rocks, and the sooner we're out of that things eyeline the better."

We set off toward the castle along the winding path and soon came to the same odd stone gateway at the front of the caste that we had seen earlier, but at some point while we had wound our way up the path the crow had vanished. The gateway stood above us massive and imposing made of a strange brown stone topped with two green spires jutting out at odd angles from the top. Standing just before the gateway was the oddest creature I had ever seen, it looked like it was made of pure darkness. With shining citrine eyes blazing in a spherical head, atop which was perched a pair of what seemed to antennae. The antennae twitched and moved as we approached and after a moment the creature turned to face us. It stood only a foot or two in height, not imposing in any way really, but I felt Sasuke tense beside me as a feeling of profound wrongness washed over me. I wasn't sure how I knew it but this thing was wrong, and it was dangerous to me somehow. I glanced over at my friend "Is your Sharingan noticing anything unusual about it?"

He shook his head slowly and uneasily "It makes my eyes hurt to look at it, I don't now what it is but it seems like my Sharingan aren't fans of it. Whatever it is it feels like a threat." I made a noise of acknowledgment and before we could go any further in deciding what to do it headed straight for us. Sasuke and I both reached in our pouches and simultaneously drew and launched a kunai at the thing. As the kunai flew toward it the strangest thing happened, the shadows it was made of sort of shifted and flowed forward.

The creature twisted itself into a spiral and corkscrewed around the kunai, using the motion to bring itself close enough to attack. Or it would have been close enough to attack if Sasuke and I hadn't started moving back as soon as it began its charge, It came right up to where we had been and Sasuke let loose with a few handsigns and shouted _**KATON:GOKAKYU NO JUTSU**_ before letting loose a massive sphere of billowing flame. The creature screamed and reared back, somehow managing to remove itself from the fireball before it closed its shape. It's antenna were alight and it seemed to be squealing in agony, without any sort of pause at all it barreled past us and down towards the path and was quickly swallowed up into the darkness.

"Okay," I wondered aloud "What the hell was that?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a high melodic voice come from behind me "That was a heartless, and a mostly harmless one at that." Sasuke and I whirled around to see a delicate girl with silvery blonde hair and a porcelain complexion smiling softly at us. I didn't really care about her skin though, even her hair was only of secondary importance. What I found most special about her was her eyes, a startling sapphire blue that I had only seen twice before. In the mirror when I got up in the morning, and inside the kyuubi's seal when I had gotten the chance to meet my parents for the first time. The eyes that had stared out of me from my fathers smiling face.

* * *

"_Mostly_ harmless." I amended myself, "A single Heartless is not too much to be concerned about...but there rarely ever is one Heartless."

I could see the blank stares on the boys faces, my eyes lingered a bit too far on Naruto's. My drawings don't compare to how he actually looks, the intensity of his eyes served as a reminder to the eyes our father...sorry, his father. Perhaps this was the emotion of hope, the emotions Nobodies weren't supposed to have, in any case I found myself hoping for a second of a life that does not exist for me. I am Kairi's Nobody, but I am not her nor am I a person. Still...what part of a heart that I have is just content with at least seeing him.

"Follow me." I said, turning around down the road to Castle Oblivion.

"Who are you?" one of the boy's spoke, the dark haired one I believe. "And where are we for that matter?"

I didn't respond, not at first, it was a moment where I began to struggle with myself as to how to answer...or if I even wanted to answer at all. The dark haired boy seemed to be a bit impatient as he spoke again, with more insistence.

"Answer us! Who are you?"

"Wait." Naruto spoke, his voice caused me to spin around to him. "I don't think she's going to hurt us."

"Don't be naïve," the dark haired boy snapped, "She appears just shortly after this 'Heartless' does and that is not a single bit suspicious? Think dobe."

I flinched, the dark haired boy had a point; now looking back I probably should not have announced my presence just yet, I was a bit...caught up in the moment I suppose. I couldn't help but turn my eyes to Naruto, trying to make out the flashes of expressions that are running across his face. He seemed to be thinking intently before he spoke the dark haired boy, "I know...I was suspicious too. But...somehow...I don't think she will harm us," he turned his expression to me and back to him, "Do we also have a better plan?"

The dark haired boy frowned for a moment, he seemed to be struggling with himself for awhile before he gave a defeated grunt. "Fine. Lead the way."

The road to Castle Oblivion was not a far one, I made sure they kept a brisk pace with me as I lead them down the twisting path to the Castle. I could notice them get more anxious as the path became a bit more twisted, but the moment we reached the Castle they stopped in a display of surprise and slight awe. I let them have their moment for awhile, Castle Oblivion even to me was a mystery – I cannot claim to know it's secrets. Just that the Organization that held me used this as a testing and research base for the longest time, until late last year that is...when he came to the Castle. At that point I had to stop trying to recall those painful memories and turned my attention back to Naruto and the dark haired boy. "Once we are inside, I will tell you anything you wish to know."

With the promise of answers the two boys eagerly followed me through the front doors of the Castle, stepping into the bright white hallway I could hear the boys wince from the bright white. Once the Castle doors closed shut I turned around to face them, there we were: three unlikely strangers in the middle of a large empty Castle. It didn't used to be just me...I had him around for awhile, checking back every now and then on his friend...but he's off now running some other errand.

"Alright, we followed you. Now who are you?" the dark haired boy asked. I did promise them answers after all.

"My name is Namine, and this is Castle Oblivion." I gestured to everything around me. Naruto looked all around the room, seemly taking in all the sights as well as the magnitude of the Castle.

"Wow...my name is Naruto, this is Sasuke." he gestured to the dark haired boy who merely folded his arms.

Now the introductions were made, here comes the difficult part. "Naruto, Sasuke...what brings you here?"

Naruto was about to speak when Sasuke suddenly cut in, "Naruto." It was a warning tone, meant to prevent the blond ninja from revealing too much than they needed. Naruto hesitated before nodding, it didn't matter me as I already knew why they were here. "I am looking for someone...someone important to me, we don't know where this person is and we're hoping someone could tell us."

"Who is that you are looking for?" I asked, knowing full well his answer, but I had to get Naruto to admit it out loud. It would make this next part far much simpler.

"...My sister." Naruto finally said, "I am looking for my sister, her name is-"

"-Kairi."

Naruto's eyes widened while Sasuke's narrowed, "You know her name? How?"

"Have you met her before?" Naruto cut in anxiously, "Do you know where she is?"

"No, I have not met her." I could see Sasuke begin to react and quickly added, "I know of her from him." The two boys exchanged glances for a moment.

"Him?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, if you want to find your sister...you will need Sora." I began to gather energy through my body, raising my arms out. "Let me show you." A bright flash of light coursed out as I brought them out of the entrance of the halls and to the pod chamber, once their eyes adjusted to the flash of light they began to take in their surroundings...before their eyes centered on the pods before them.

"What is that...?" Naruto asked; looking closer his eyes widened, "T-There are people in there!"

Sasuke moved to the pod as well to get a closer look and when he did his eyes widened as well; he turned to me with a twinge of anger in his voice. "What is this, what's going on?!"

I kept my calm even with Sasuke's anger brimming to the surface, I walked to the pods and began to explain, "A little under a year ago...some things happened and I was forced to tear apart the memories in Sora and his friends. In order for him to get his memories back I had to put him and his friends asleep; it's been a slow process...but I am nearly done. Soon they will all wake up without realizing what happened to them." Sasuke was giving me a critical glare while Naruto seemed...unsure of what to think.

"Why should we care about this 'Sora'?" Sasuke asked, "What does he have to do with Kairi?"

"Because...he's her hero." Naruto's eyes widened at this statement as I continued, "Last year...Kairi was taken from her home by forces of darkness who wished to see her used under their control. Sora left his home to find her, traveling alongside two others he finally found and rescued her. He cares a lot for her...and she cares for him too."

Naruto turned to the pod and walked up to get, staring through the glass to Sora's sleeping face – he stared at the boy for a long time as Sasuke walked up to me. "It sounds more like you want to make up for your mistake than help us find Kairi. Come on dobe, we don't have time for this."

"You said you can wake him up?" Naruto asked quietly, turning away from the pod to me; I nodded.

"I still need a bit of time, but he is very close to waking up."

"Then do it." Sasuke gave Naruto a look, but the boy shook his head. "You heard what she said...he protected her, he did what I could not. For that...I owe him. If waking him up is the best way to find Kairi then that's what we should do. I want to meet this person who cares for her so much."

With the decision made I made my way over to the control panel holding the pod life supports; I began to run a check up as Sasuke moved over to Naruto, they were speaking in hushed tones so I focused my ears to try and pick up what they were saying. "...too convenient. We don't know this place and we don't know her, while your naivety has not once surprised me you can't tell me you trust her."

"I don't know..." Naruto confessed, "There's something about her...something familiar, I feel like I have known her my whole life...I can't explain it, but I feel like we can trust her..."

I paused for a moment in typing, the two boys heard it and they turned their heads to me. I cleared my throat and resumed typing, albeit very quickly, I could see out the corner of my eye the two boys shrug and I resumed my work. Several meters appeared on the screen, each showing the life signs of each person in the pod. I began to check on the status, touching the panel with Donald's information and the screen shifted to the pod details. At the bottom highlighted in green was a status marker: **ready to awaken.** I felt a slight rush of excitement and touched the file with Goofy's status, as before the pod stats appeared with highlighted in green: **ready to awaken.** I refrained from a smile I went over and touched the status of Sora's pod, my eyes trailed below to the status marker and saw: **incomplete.**

My eyes bore into the red words that was not the words I wanted to see, at least Donald and Goofy could be awakened. I sadly hit the back button and opened the program that controlled the three pods, I selected Donald and Goofy's pods and went over the selections in the drop box. Finding the section '**awakening process**' I selected it and a window box opened: **Are you sure you want to awaken these pods?** I touched my finger to **yes** and the computer began to send the signal to the two other pods: which began to hiss and react. Naruto and Sasuke turned to the other two pods in surprise and I spoke over the computer, "Good news and bad news. The good news is I can awaken Sora's companions Donald and Goofy, which is what I am doing right now. The bad news..."

"Sora can't be awakened?" Sasuke cut in, I nodded and he frowned, "Figures."

"Not yet anyway, he will be able to soon, if I can just-"

Suddenly the castle shook! I yelled out and grabbed onto the computer for safety, the two boys kept their balance as the castle shook for a moment. "What was that?!" Naruto yelled out, the computer I was using began to beep and I pulled up the warning box. My eyes widened in fear as familiar black forms raced across the hallways outside...Shadows...Neo Shadows...big ones, small ones, everything I could see rushing through the hallways to us.

"It's the Heartless!" I cried out, yelling over the hissing of the pods as Donald and Goofy's were opening. "They're heading this way! Donald and Goofy will be too tired to fight and...and I don't know if I can awaken Sora yet!"

"What do we do?!" Naruto asked as the doors suddenly began to bang and shake.

I paused, trying to think...if only Riku was here...wait...Riku, that was it. He left something here, something for us to use if the Heartless were surrounding the castle and we needed to leave. "There's a ship! A spaceship here! I can load Sora's pod onto the ship and we can get out from there!"

"A what?!" Naruto asked, the doors began to break down and he shook his head, "Nevermind, what do we need to do?!"

"Keep the Heartless away from the pods while I get the ship ready," I pulled up the bay controls to the ship and began to do the pre-flight preparations.

"That we can do!" Naruto nodded, he and Sasuke standing side by side as the door began to break down. Sasuke's eyes narrowing as the door went 'bang', 'bang!', 'BANG!'.

"Here they come." Sasuke announced grimly, assuming a fighting stance.

* * *

An echoing roar rang out around the strange white chamber as the door shoo in its moorings. I could see little puffs of dust falling from the ceiling to float down toward the ground where the stone around the door was buckling under the assault from whatever was smashing into it was impacting the wood. The girl was standing off to the side, frozen in fear, eyes wide and terrified and guileless in the face of some instinctive drive to flee and whatever ties were holding her to the people in this room.

Sasuke was standing beside me with his sword drawn, his face a grim mask of concentration, but I could see the gleam of excitement in my old friends eye. Sasuke was always cautious but he was never smart enough to be afraid of a powerful enemy, its one of the reasons we became friends in the first place. I could feel a slight prickling on the air and knew my friend was running lightning chakra down the length of his blade, whatever that monster was it wasn't going to get off lightly in this fight.

I was braced to fight, a kunai in one hand and confusion running through my mind. I didn't understand why I was feeling the way I was about this fight, my normal confidence was gone, replaced by worry. I was afraid, not for myself of course as I said I've never had that kind of common sense, but I couldn't help but fear for the girl. I turned as quickly as I could and grabbed her by the wrist, and I had to grit my teeth as some kind of pulse raced down my arm and through my body. It felt like my chakra just…came alive at her touch. Like it knew her, like it could sense her fear and wanted to help her. I saw her eyes widen and opened my mouth to ask what the hell had happened when the door made a sharp crack. I head Sasuke bellow from behind me "Dobe! The doors giving way, what the hell are you doing?"

I gritted my teeth and shoved the girl behind Soras pod. He seemed to have a good track recording protecting girls who were important to me which, Namine obviously was. I looked in her eyes and barked out "Stay here, don't move and when I get back I want some damn answers." Her eyes, still widened in fear, met mine and she nodded her assent. That was all I had time to wait for, I turned and bolted back towards Sasuke and just as I reached his side the door exploded in a shower of stone mortar and wood shrapnel. The creature that stood behind it was…terrifying. I had and empty heart shape missing from its chest and it eyes burned with a sickening citrine fire. Tendrils of ropy shadow writhed around its onyx face as it stared hungrily about it.

There was an…alien quality about the thing that chilled my spine, I wasn't sure exactly how to define it but I knew that it hated me, just for being alive, for having a heart it HATED me. Everything that was good or right in the world this thing simply wasn't. It was in the most literal sense of the word an entire existence of NOT. I felt a bellow of challenge bubble up from mythroat and rip from my mouth, a tangible, auditory assault against the insubstantial wrongness of the creature standing in front of me.

Sasuke was already moving as I started my roar and I felt my eyes widen in panic because somehow I KNEW that my friend couldn't hurt this thing, that _I_ couldn't hurt this thing. We were men, fighting a mans battle against a force the unmaking. We were like children trying to cut a cloud of poison gas. This thing was simply not of the world we stood in. I hurtled forward, drawing on the Kyuubi as I went to propel myself into way of my friend as the beast swung an arm in a wide brutal ark at Sasuke's charging form. I interposed myself ahead of him a second or two before it would have hit and couldn't help but close my eyes to brace for the attack.

I waited for the blow... and waited... but it never came and then I felt a horrible wrenching sensation and my chakra was simply RIPPED away. I screamed and collapsed, thinking that this horrible rending pain was the feeling of being struck by this disgusting behemoth. But despite the pain I kept breathing... kept thinking... kept hurting. Tentatively, afraid this was a dream I opened my eyes. I stood dumbstruck as I saw the monster held at a dead stop by glowing golden chains wrapped around the sinewy shadows of its form. Dumbstruck because I KNEW those chains, those chains were my mothers. They belonged to a woman that couldn't be alive, and I certainly wasn't making them. I wasn't making much of anything because my chakra appeared to be gone. As in no longer in existence, I looked behind me to see if Sasuke was somehow doing this and saw him frozen in shock at the sight as well. Then my eyes kept moving and for what felt like the tenth time int his crazy horrible day I stopped dead in my tracks. The girl was standing there with her hands raised a look of pure RAGE plastered across her soft features. She bit her words out like chips of glacial ice "Leave. Them. ALONE!"

Something about the way she howled that was new, like a baby learning to walk, like she had never been angry before, and boy had she been saving up. And I realized why I was so shocked, because I had thought she was the spitting image of my father but I was wrong, my mother stood in front of me seething with the scarlet rage that earned her the nickname the red hot habanero. And I couldn't see how I had been so stupid, how I could have ever not felt this girl, could have ever missed my FAMILY.

Because I didn't know how but this girl had taken my chakra from me and had used it to fashion a shield for me from love and anger and everything a sister should feel in the protection of a brother. She held this monster away from me with righteous fury and protective wrath and my eyes began to burn with tears. Tears for my new baby sister and how she'd had to stand in front of me and watch me treat her like a stranger and how she still loved me so much she was literally holding back the darkness to keep me safe.

But love and anger and family can only do so much. The chains my new sister had somehow made to restrain the beast shattered as it braced itself and gave a mighty heave and I watched helplessly as she crumpled in a heap to the ground. Or she would have, had Sasuke not appeared at her side in an instant and caught her gently. He lifted her into his arms and cradled her protectively against his chest and looked at me, and he nodded. That nod meant the world to me 'Take care of this will you?' it said 'No harm will come to her while I'm here, besides you don't need me for this punk.'

With that on moment of affirmation of my best friends trust, of my sisters safety, and of my need to protect them both I felt something inside me SHATTER. I felt power well up from the fountain from which all my blood welled up and race through my veins and into every cell in my body. A wave of light crashed down from my hands and I was holding a key. A red and black steel key the size of one of my legs with nine curling tails making up the shaft and the of them curling out into teeth. The grip was neck of a fox with burning read eyes, and in its mouth was a black pulsing jewel poised as if it were a blast about to be unleashed.

I could feel the energy of the Kyuubi pulsing through the key mixing with my own power and I had never felt so much strength. The Kyuubi wasn't inside me anymore, It was in this key, in my hand, and it wasn't a prisoner, it was my partner. I looked up at the ebony nightmare lumbering towards myself, the sister I hadn't even known I had and my best friend and I couldn't help but grin. I looked it dead in the eyes and took a step. With that step I was suddenly right in front of the thing, it swung a mighty hand at me, trying to crush me flat, but I evaded it with ease and swung my key.

I took its arm off at the elbow, I swung again at it chest and though it tried to dodge a deep furrow was ripped down its torso. It dropped down to its knees before me, and though it dwarfed me in stature I couldn't help but feel that it was cowering before me. I lifted my key and readied a swing at its head, and suddenly felt a certainty rip through me as my keys name rumbled through my mind. For my sister who was lost and my other who was found, for my brother in all but blood who held her protectively in his arms, for my parents who watched me from the afterlife smiling down at me.

I could feel the two words that described it best, the two words that said that no member of my family would be harmed while I drew breath to help them. And I spoke my weapons name with calm certainty as it cleaved the monsters head from its shoulders "Never Again."

* * *

_..ain..._

_...ver again..._

_Never Again._

With those words my eyes shot open and I gave a huge gasp of air, sputtering and coughing as my lungs fought against the sudden rush of air. I could feel a pair of arms hold my shoulders and a commanding voice call to me, "Namine! Namine you need to remain calm, breathe, breathe slowly okay?"

It was a struggle, but I was finally able to control my breathing and soon my eyes could really focus on what was going on around me. I could see the floor of the pod chamber, smoke coming from when the Heartless burst through the door. Small dark wisps coming from Heartless that were fading back into darkness, similar to the dark hair of Sasuke who was watching me like a hawk. Once my eyes focused on him he gave the tiniest sigh of relief and gently helped me up, keeping a hold on my arms as I stumbled up. As I took in the scene before me my eyes widened when they landed on Naruto, standing in the middle of the room with the collection of dark wisps around him and in his hands held a familiar but different weapon: the Keyblade.

"...How...how did you-"

"Sora!"

The familiar quacking like voice had me turn around, Donald and Goofy who I had released from the pods were gathered around Sora's pod with concern. "Sora!" Goofy knocked on the pod glass, "Wake up Sora!"The two of them turned around to us, Donald's large eyes narrowed in anger as he approached the three of us, "Hey, let Sora out!" his quacking voice sounded unhappy and a bit worried "Watch it," Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Donald did not seem intimidated as the two stared each other down, at another time this would be rather funny.

Funny...wait...this would be funny? I felt my breath hitch and my own hand go to my chest, a something seemed to rush through my body things that I have never felt before. There it was, that word again, felt. Why do I keep using that word? Am I poisoned? I don't feel ill...again, there it is, feel...it was then the realization finally dawned on me. Feel. I can feel things...so many things...laughter...fear...rage...joy. This couldn't be possible, I am a Nobody and Nobodies don't have hearts. If Nobodies don't have hearts and Nobodies cannot feel anything, that would mean I am not a Nobody anymore. How? How was this possible?

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I turned to Naruto's face, my breath quickened as he observed me with those suddenly critical eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I...I don't..."

"That power you used...no one can use it...no one. Except my mother...she had that power and you have that power, you are my sister. I don't know how, but you are my sister."

"I..." I paused, this was a bit difficult to explain. "In a way yes...and in a way no."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked, but another rumble from the Castle stopped all questions short.

"Whaaack!" Donald spluttered, "What was that?!"

I ran back to the control panel and continued to type on it, images on the screen confirmed more Heartless were beginning to invade Castle Oblivion. How though? The Heartless have left this place alone most of the time why has that changed now? Someone was definitely controlling the Heartless...but who and why? I shook my head, none of this mattered right at this moment.

"The Heartless, there are more of them, too many for us all to handle." I checked on the preparation status of Sora's pod to be loaded onto the ship. I touched the screen and...found it was still 'sending the signal'; I gave a growl and tried to cancel the request and restart it. Which ended up with a frozen page, followed by a blue screen and a total shut down. I gave a yell and slammed on the computer screen...my eyes looking to my hands in shock...was that anger? It came out so naturally...as if it was my own.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked, I shook my head and rebooted the system."The computer is not sending the signal properly to the ship bay." I said, opening two different tabs and began typing commands onto one of them. "I'm activating some of the internal defenses in the Castle, they'll slow the Heartless down as we run for the ship."

"How are we all going to escape if the pod won't load onto the ship?" Sasuke asked, coincidentally after I finished telling the computer it's final command."If we can't take the pod." I said as Sora's pod started to hiss and open, Donald and Goofy cried out as the still sleeping Sora collapsed on top of them. "We'll take Sora without it."Donald gave a grumble as he and Goofy slowly stood up, the latter tucking his arm under Sora and carrying him. I was walking away from the computer to the door when Naruto again grabbed my arm, I could see it in his eyes: he wanted those answers. "Naruto I will explain everything to you, but not here and not now we have to _go_! Because believe me...I have questions I want you to answer too."

Naruto reluctantly released my arm after that, he knew I was right there was too much danger to stop and answer questions. He looked at the weapon in his hand, clenched it tightly and held it to his side – ready to fight if needed. I ran over to the side of the room and opened the side exit to the ship bay below. Donald ran through first followed by Goofy carrying the sleeping Sora, once they were through Sasuke and Naruto quickly followed. Down the small hallway was a set of stairs that spun all the way down to the basement levels, as we descended the Castle's lighting system activated the small low-watt lights as we descended. Once we reached the bottom of the steps a small set of doors slid open, the basement levels unlike the upper floors used dark walls rather than the bright white ones.

This made the hallway near impossible to see until the lighting system activated, once enough of the lights turned on I led the group through the tunnel until we approached an open door at the end of the hallway. It led into a large hangar that seemed to be a massive garage, large industrial sized cranes, heavy machinery, all here for one purpose: the ship in the middle of the hangar. The ship had an oval body, with four small wings: two on the top and two on the bottom. The front of the ship had two pincers at the front, smooth for less resistance but had air flaps for landing – in between the two pincers at the body of the ship was the cockpit. Riku had been working on this in his free time after finding what he described to be a 'silvery sleek gummi block' he assembled it together in four months and had it flight ready in two. I found him down here one night, admiring his new ship, when I asked him why he was down here he told me he was naming it: Destiny. In memory of the home he now had a greater appreciation for.

"Wooooooooooooowwww!" Naruto and Goofy let out as they stared at the ship, even Donald seemed awe-struck. Sasuke fought it but there was a sense of wonder in his eyes, however brief. The Castle began to shake again and the six of us began to move to the ship, Riku had shown me how to use it in case for emergencies like this. I opened up the cargo ramps in the back of the ship and we all scrambled in. The lights of the ship activated with a hum and the ship's navigation came to life, after a tight squeeze to the cockpit we found a rather roomy ship: probably intended for five to ten people.

"Alright Namine get us out of here!" Sasuke said, which caused me to freeze in point. "What?"

Riku did show me what to do in case of an emergency, he showed me everything...except how to fly. My silence suddenly caught everyone's attention as Sasuke's jaw dropped, "Don't tell me you don't...oh perfect!"

"I'll fly the ship!" Naruto raised his hand eagerly, to which Sasuke cut in.

"You had never even heard of these things until now! Look if someone is going to fly is may as well be-"

"Me!" Donald suddenly cut in, hopping into the cockpit seat and began to interact with the controls.

"Look, little...thing," Sasuke struggled, "I know you want to be helpful and all but I don't think you can-"

Suddenly the ships engines roared to life and the ship began to hover off the ground, Donald gave Sasuke a rather smug expression and Naruto started to giggle at the dumbfounded ninja; who said through gritted teeth, "Shut it Dobe."

"Everyone strap in!" Donald yelled as he began to turn the ship around to the cargo door exit, I hurriedly sat myself into the seat and fastened the seat belt tight enough that was near vice like. The hangar bay doors opened with a loud mechanical roar – we could see the Heartless buzzing outside like a swarm of bees. I could feel a rush of something...fear perhaps...fearing that the moment these Heartless see these open doors they'll swarm in and surround us. My fears finally vanished when Donald yelled, "Blasting off!" The ship shooting out of the hangar bay and straight up into the sky, the Heartless were not fast enough to pursue us and quickly fell behind as we escaped Castle Oblivion and into the darkness of space. Naruto and Sasuke giving us a play by play of their feelings with the various sounds they made as the ship traveled out of the planet and into space.

"We're in the stars Sasuke! Look at this!" Naruto pointed at all the various stars outside the cockpit windows.

"It's...it's certainly something..." Sasuke admitted, his usual anger and sarcasm leaving him as he stared out to space in wonder.

As I stared at Naruto being wondrous at space I felt another rush of emotion...yes, I can finally say that, rush of emotion. It was a strange one...it made me a little sad, but joyful at the same time. Seeing this man who is...my brother...suddenly filled me with so much of this strange emotion that I felt like I was going to burst with it. I had been denying my existence for so long, now that I have no reason to deny it I felt this overwhelming happiness that I could finally feel for the first time. In a few minutes the wonder of space will vanish for Naruto, he will ask me for answers – the ones I promised him earlier. I will give them to him now, all of them. We will then wake Sora up and...I do not know what the rest will hold. I just want to hold onto this one moment, this moment where I am no longer a Nobody. My name is Namine...I have a brother...I have feelings...

I exist.

**AN/Ok this is Kingofclubs8129 we just finished everything up for this chapter. We got a lot of views on the last one and we're really glad youre liking the story. If you guys could review it'd really help us out with furthering the story. Let us know what you think we're really looking forward to hearing from you. Im really psyched about the direction this story is taking and my co-author is really helping me out with this one so I feel its way better than any of the other fics im working on. Ill let aforementioned co-author talk now.** **Hey guys, Michael of Black Scepter here. This particular chapter was a bit harder to get out because there was a lot we had to cover in a single chapter. I think most of it came out very well, we had a vision for this chapter but had to compromise quite a bit to come out with something that made sense for the logic of the story. We're gonna be handling our first Disney world in a moment, we're excited for the themes that surround some of the worlds that we want to use for this story. Enjoy the future chapters to come and let us know how we are doing!**


	3. Distance Disturbs Me

Sometimes I wonder about the world. I see these people walking around oblivious living their fragile lives and dreaming their fragile dreams and I think perhaps there's some fundamental imperfection in my mind I fail to see how every single one of them can allow themselves to continue on with life being so incredibly weak. I don't hate the weak you understand, I simply pity them, and I feel sorrow for how difficult it must be to walk through a world unchanging, static and unalterable in your own ineffectiveness.

The world needs people to shape it, to change the things that need changing so that the weak can live in a better world; because they can't do a thing to change it themselves, and really someone has to. They don't understand it though, they fear us, the mighty, and truly they have a reason to do so; for as we can better their world so too can we destroy it, and still they remain useless in the face of their betters.

I don't hate the weak, but I just can't bring myself to love them either. I can't bring myself to chain my emotions to a fragile shell of glass only to have them crushed beneath the boots of my foes. I envy his childlike innocence sometimes, my brainless little brother foolishly passing out pieces of his soul to everyone he meets, regardless of strength, regardless of the danger. I usually try to ignore them though, when they come into my world. Speak politely to them as if they were my equals and move on, it's better for them that way.

It seems hypocritical sometimes, to be so absolutely certain of my own strength and yet so very afraid of the weakness of others. I ensure there is no flaws in the bastion of my strength by keeping the weak at bay with indifference but someday I'll use this strength of mine to make a world where I can give my heart to everyone, where I have proven to everyone and everything that I CAN protect those who matter to me.

When my day comes I will be as beloved as my brother, I will be able to have just as many friends and all of them will be safe. Maybe when that day comes I'll be able to look him in the eye without being so afraid to see disappointment reflected in his gaze, I can't taint his childlike worldview with my realism, I suppose in the end he's just another kind of weak. I'll have to save him too.

I glanced contemplatively up at the night sky as I strolled down the cobblestone street past the synthesis shop, the stairs and stones of the first district always helped me think, especially this late when I was sure to be alone. Not that anyone ever bothers me even when it's busy, my reputation still precedes me from my younger days when I had a bit of a temper, but I like the solitude of the streets at night. A creak caught my attention from across the empty courtyard and three people stepped in from the door that offworlders always used to enter.

I pride myself on being able to read those around me and these people were no exception. There was an element of danger to their walk, and I felt sure that they could handle themselves in a fight; the silver haired one with the covered eye seemed especially interesting. I couldn't see much in the way off efficiency in the movements of the black haired on with the ponytail, but there was a wariness in his movements and a respect and confidence in the stance of the other two in his presence that spoke of competence and intelligence, I was hesitant to dismiss him as a threat. The third was a pretty blonde in purple and she was…very pleasant to look at. She had a lean tightness to her body that spoke of extreme physical competence as well as…generous genetic assets. The sway of her hips spoke of a girl well aware of her own body and well versed in the use of it in implication just as well as in violence. She knew she was gorgeous and was totally willing to use it as a weapon.

I put on a charming smile and strode forward to meet the new arrivals,"Hello there, welcome to Traverse Town, what brings you to these parts." I watched the byplay carefully after I addressed them, taking in every nuance of behavior. The silver haired one looked politely interested and put on a friendly mask, but I could see the sharp focus in the smiling eye showing above his mask, this man was watching me, and he wouldn't hesitate to deal with me quickly if I seemed a threat but he wasn't worried. The black haired one was analyzing me much as I was doing to him, but kept his face blank enough that I have no idea what he saw.

The blonde girl looked at me with a lot of focus on her face. Some of the focus was professional and analytical, but I could see some of it mirrored my own more physical interest. She noticed me noticing her, and she was noticing back and didn't mind what she saw. I let a bit of heat and some of my surety of purpose leak into my smile as I addressed her directly. "I'm sure I'd have noticed such a stunning beauty visiting before, and I know everyone that comes here but I can only hope whatever business brings you here will do so again in the future." I smiled ingratiatingly as I stared straight into her piercing blue eyes and was pleased to see a bit of a wicked smile curl her lips as she responded "You know, I'm beginning to hope that myself, but I just got here I still have some time before I'm gone, can't you enjoy what you have instead of being greedy?"

A genuine grin split my face and tossed my head back and laughed. "Well fair enough angel, would you and your friends care to join me for a drink so I can start my enjoyment immediately. I fear if I miss out on any of this time I'll surely regret it later." She gave me a saucy wink and offered me her elbow "We could use some information on the local culture, fill us in and I suppose I could let myself be talked into spending some time with you, I'm Ino Yamanaka by the way. I don't suppose handsome strangers who greet newcomers at the gate give out their names?"

I took her arm in mine and led her and her two friends over towards the café to the left of the door they'd entered through. I gave her a dazzling smile "Well pretty newcomer girls who agree to let me show them around town one on one tonight call me Ryu. So does everyone else really, but I'm hoping you're part of the first category." She let out a peal of silvery laughter as we walked into the café. "Well Ryu, I suppose I do need to be shown around. I could certainly think of less pleasant guides." The black haired one rolled his eyes at her flirting. I got the distinct impression that it was more about boredom and disgust than jealousy; these two had been friends for quite some time then. We all sat down at a table and I ordered us a round of root beer. Offworlders sometimes have never tasted beer and it can be an unappealing taste at first. I also don't like to erode my faculties and root beer happens to be a favorite drink of mine.

The silver haired one spoke up finally "Ryu-san, we're here looking for a friend of ours, his name is Naruto Uzumaki. He's blonde and has distinctive lines on his face as well as very blue eyes. Have you seen him around or heard anything about him." I shook my head regretfully "I'm sorry Mr.…I actually didn't catch your name, but I haven't heard anything about a guy like that, I'll ask a few friends though, maybe I could help you track him down."

He nodded his head in gratitude "We would appreciate it, I'm Kakashi Hatake and my dark haired friend here is Shikamaru Nara, and you've already been introduced to Ino." He finished wryly. I grinned ruefully "I'm sorry about ignoring you two but your friend had all my attention from the second you all walked in. She didn't mind though." Ino grinned mischievously "You seem pretty sure of how things between us are going. It almost seems like you know ahead of time what's going to happen. Care to share how our night is going to go?" I winked at her again "Sorry angel, I don't kiss and tell."

Her face actually heated up at that one. She seemed aware that she was blushing and looked away to cover it. "Well you're certainly confident enough." I smiled at her self-assuredly "I don't see the point in uncertainty."

The dark haired one, Shikamaru looked at me seriously for a moment and then nodded. "We do appreciate the help, is there any way you could help us find our way around?" I chuckled and glanced over to the side indicatively "well aside from showing Ino personally I think perhaps the map in the middle of the courtyard could be of assistance." Shikamaru followed my eye line and grinned wryly "we appreciate it; we look forward to hearing about anything you find out about Naruto. I grinned wolfishly "Trust me buddy, if you want to know something in this town you ran into the right guy."

I stood up and looked around at them "well I'll get going to ask around about your friend, enjoy the café, your meal is on me, order what you want. Angel, I'll see you later tonight, say twelve o'clock in front of the synthesis shop?" She glanced over at me; cheeks still stained the slightest most alluring bit red "I'm looking forward to it." I smiled brilliantly and walked out into the darkness.

* * *

I couldn't help but feel a bit uplifted as I walked away from the café I'd have to ask around about their friend. If I could find some info about him Ino would be ever so grateful. I grinned to myself thinking of the absolutely stunning girl I had a date with later, she certainly wasn't shy but I had made her blush with that kiss and tell comment. Interestingly enough she hadn't seemed too opposed to the idea.

I wasn't exactly a bad looking guy and I had a healthy interest in the opposite sex but some caught my eye more than others. There was really only one girl that had caught my full attention. I had a few dates or casual encounters with pretty girls like my date with Ino later but my way of life didn't lend itself to a solid long term relationship. Not to mention the strain my worldview put on any sort of relationship with women who weren't as strong as I was. I sometimes thought I made things difficult for myself on purpose giving myself high standards so I didn't have to deal with rejection, but honestly as arrogant as it sounds I don't really run into that problem.

But there was one girl who made me feel like there could be an exception. I hadn't checked in on her in while but she had been fairly secure when I last checked, it wasn't a shock to find myself thinking of her, I thought of her most days. I loved thinking of her if only because she was the one thing that made my usually harsh thoughts feel soft and gentle. She was the one bright thing in my otherwise dark life.

I focused on the task at hand though; I'd ask around about the kid and see what I could dig up. I would have to contact some old friends around town. It had been a while since I was here so I wasn't exactly still in the loop but I'm fairly sure I still know the right people. I was so wrapped up in my own thought that I didn't even notice when I accidentally walked into a pretty blonde girl moving through the first district. At first I thought it was Ino catching up with me and grinned but it quickly slid off my face as I stared into burning cerulean pools.

I was shocked to see her; I had thought she was still in Castle Oblivion. She smiled sheepishly at me "Sorry about that, I didn't see you…there." She faltered a bit as she stopped and stared at me, apparently nearly as transfixed as I was. Ino was absolutely gorgeous and her body was amazing but Namine…Namine was special. Her face made my heart soar just to see it, and not just because of what a big part I knew she'd play in things to come.

Namine was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen and I knew that when I finally proved my strength to the world, she would be at my side. When I finished proving myself to the world I would be able to protect the people around me and Namine was the one I wanted to protect the most. People had used her in the past and it hurt me to think of it if I had been there I fear I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from rescuing her. She was treated so badly by those around her, if there was anyone in the world I wanted to protect it would have been her. Anyone who couldn't take care of themselves that had touched my heart it was her. Anyone who was my weakness it was her.

She couldn't seem to speak for a moment as she stared "You…you look very familiar, like I know you from somewhere." Her brow furrowed in consternation at my face and I felt a pang go through my heart at the look of vague recognition. She didn't know me, couldn't know me yet. No-one could until I made my strength known. I forced a false smile to put her at ease as my loneliness tore at me. My path was a righteous one, no serious emotional attachment until it was safe, but it was a path of despair. I hoped that someday after I proved myself Namine would smile when she saw my face but until then I could only put her at ease and send her on her way.

"I guess I just have one of those faces. What's got you in such a tizzy little dove?" She blinked for a moment before she registered the nickname she looked about to mention it but decided better of it and just brought up her problem "I seem to have lost my friends, I have no idea where they could have gone. Have you seen them? One of them is a dog and another is a duck. Another is a really broody guy with dark hair and a shirt that isn't closed properly." I blinked at the description, the duck and dog were Donald and Goofy doubtlessly, but who was this broody guy? Apparently my assumptions about her whereabouts had lead me to be lax in keeping tabs on her. If she had new companions I'd have to find out what I could about them. I wasn't happy about the task. I don't like surprises.

"Maybe I can help where did you see them last?" She looked worried; I think they landed in the third district. I raised my eyebrows. "If that's the case you might want to get over there and find them. There have been some rumors of people disappearing in district three." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small crystal snowflake on a silver chain. A small sapphire was set into the center of it, nearly the exact color of her eyes. I had gotten it just for her, one day when I was feeling particularly sentimental, I had had some heavy protective charms placed on it but hadn't thought I'd have a chance to give it to her anytime soon. I had been slowly adding to its protective properties over time and it had become a fairly impressive defensive talisman.

I pressed it into her soft hand, feeling my heart race as I touched her skin for the first time, feeling my pulse quicken at the smoothness of her skin. "This is a protective charm I picked up from a traveling merchant. I realized after I bought it how girly it looked and I don't have anyone to give it to so I want you to have it okay. It should keep you safe in district three until you can find your friends and even after that." She blushed a bit as I pulled my hand back "I can't take this, I don't even know you and this is such a nice thing to do, I didn't do anything to deserve this." I smiled softly at her "You seem like you could use a friend. Sometimes we all need help, but you're right you don't know me. Think of this necklace as a promise for us to get to know each other another time."

She smiled up at me and my heart almost burst into pieces from the happiness and trust in those beautiful sapphire orbs. "It's a promise then, I won't take it off until I see you again to give it back." I smiled at her and turned to walk away. "Be safe. I'll see you again soon little dove." And with those parting words I let myself be swallowed up by the night.

* * *

We didn't get too far into deep space before the ship began to have issues; it started with a system failure that led to a fuel warning. Donald wasn't willing to take chances so he searched for the nearest world that had enough technology to stop and refuel, we found that in Traverse Town: the world for lost worlds. Even with the rise of the darkness stopped there are still some worlds that are lost, therefore Traverse Town still serves its purpose. Once we landed the ship we all sat around on the ramp outside of the ship, Donald was checking the engine compartment for any additional issues. On the ship's ride prior to landing I had explained to them everything they needed to know about Heartless, Nobodies, and lastly of course the weapon that Naruto was not intended to have.

"A Keyblade?" Naruto asked again, with some slight skepticism.

"Yes. A weapon that was forged to fight creatures like the Heartless. I am not sure how you did, but you managed to summon a Keyblade. Which is...well...odd."

"In what way odd?" Sasuke asked.

"The Keyblade isn't just a weapon...it's sentient. It can choose who its master is: the Keyblade will only choose though with strong hearts. It is very unheard of for someone to simply...will a Keyblade into existence."

Naruto looked down at his hand where the Keyblade came to him, he stared at it for a moment then tightened his hand to a fist. A loud clinking and clattering was heard and I turned over to Donald. "Donald? Everything okay?"

"Yeah! I think I got it!" Donald called out, suddenly there was a bright light, a 'zapping' noise and a cry from Donald. When the light faded Donald slid out of the compartment, a small trail of smoke rose from him. "I don't got it..."

Naruto and Goofy ran over and helped Donald up, who shook himself off and waddled his way over to the group with a critical expression. "The engine's drive is outdated, it wasn't meant to handle all the power the ship could preform. It needs a new engine or a replacement energy cube to help store all the huge amounts of power."

"Where can we find any of those...whatever those things are?" Naruto asked, Goofy seemed to have a solution of course.

"There are a lot of shops here in Traverse Town, lots of parts for the ship!" Goofy excitedly pointed over to the doors. "In the First District they have lots of shops there!" Everyone else seemed to approve of this idea, well, not everyone. I had some objections on what we should do first.

"We need to put that on hold for a moment," I said, looking over inside the ship where the sleeping Sora was. My eyes though caught ahold of something, something slithering on the ground...something black. I followed it and realized a Heartless formed behind Sasuke, ready to pounce and snatch his heart. I opened my mouth to shout out, to warn him, but in a few seconds it didn't matter. Goofy suddenly shot forward, shield in hand and bashed the Heartless back seconds before it attacked Sasuke.

"Thunder!" Donald cried and a bold of lightning struck the Heartless as it sailed backwards, Sasuke turned around and realized what had nearly happened. The dark haired ninja was flabbergasted, "What- how did it- I didn't even-"

"That's what I was afraid of; Heartless, here in Traverse Town." I looked around just to check if the Heartless in question was the only one, so far it was so I felt more comfortable talking. "Traverse Town is no stranger to Heartless...but they usually stay away from The First District or anywhere close to it. The fact that Heartless entered this district means something is wrong."

"What do you mean wrong?" I heard Naruto ask, feeling anxious (wow, this is what anxious feels like...unsettling) I quickly answer. "Heartless don't grow this bold unless there is a leader, a stronger Heartless that is directing them. Until that Heartless is defeated no where in Traverse Town will be safe for either of us...especially with Sora and Naruto." Naruto's quizzical expression led me to once again, explain things, "Keyblade wielders like you and Sora have strong hearts, Heartless are afraid and yet attracted to those strong hearts. As long as you two are here and these Heartless run rampant you will not be safe, that is why we need to deal with them quickly."

Naruto's face paled, perhaps as a sign of him understanding the gravity of the powers of a Keyblade Master. Sasuke still seemed very peeved at the fact he couldn't sense the Heartless's approach, Donald and Goofy didn't seem to notice his mood change and were busy fussing over the ship and Sora's condition. Naruto looked at his hand again and as if on cue his Keyblade flashed to light in his hand, Donald and Goofy stopped fussing over Sora long enough to stare at his Keyblade in wonder. I am new at emotions, yet I suppose what I saw in Naruto's eyes as he stared at that Keyblade was a blend of emotions: fear, wonder, and determination. Holding his new and powerful weapon in his hands he turned to Sasuke. "You heard her...we need to find this Heartless and deal with it."

"Naruto, I couldn't even sense it approach me – if I can't how can you sense it?" Sasuke challenged, Naruto though seemed undeterred, "I have a feeling the Keyblade will do that for us...besides, we seem to have found two people who know how to deal with this situation." Naruto looked over to Donald and Goofy, "You two seem to know the town best, we could use your help."

The two of them exchanged glances and nodded, moving over to join Naruto and Sasuke, the former turned to me – I had a feeling I knew what he was going to ask. "I will stay here inside the ship...it should be protected enough, long enough for me to finish waking Sora. We can't leave him alone...he'll be an open target..."

Naruto did not seem to be willing enough to leave me behind, but I was determined (huh, so that's what that feels like) enough to not have my mind changed. Naruto's shoulders sagged in defeat and he turned to the others. "Alright, lets have a look around the town. If we talk to people maybe we can learn some clues."

The three of them nodded, Sasuke a bit more bitterly than the rest, and they headed for the First District. I walked back up the ramp of the ship, shutting the ramp as I did and moved to the bedroom where Sora was asleep. Grabbing a chair I could not help but note of how...peaceful he looked, without a care in the world...like he was napping on the beach rather than a cold dark spaceship. I gave a sigh and shook my head, musing aloud, "How is it that have such sway over people...even when asleep. So many people need you and you haven't even met them. Let's change that shall we?"

I closed my eyes and began to dive into Sora's heart, my surroundings melted into darkness where the only source of light was soon at my feet. The podium where I stood was fractured, incomplete, barely held together. I walked to the last piece that was missing from this podium, looking out into the darkness and began to search for the final piece of his memory that I have yet to attach. This piece was a stubborn piece, always eluded me, but today no more. I would scan the darkness of his heart all day if I had to, luckily I didn't need to for I found it: the lone glittering piece in the darkness. With a flick of my wrist my power manifested as a white chain, latching onto the memory and pulling it out of the darkness. Like a fisher pulling his catch out of the water I reeled in the large piece of the memory, letting it settle into the jagged groves and cracks. The second the final piece touched the podium glowed with an intense light, I used to be able to handle this light before but this time was something different: the light seared against me and before I knew I could see things...playing in my head. A girl...with hair like fire...in every memory that streamed through my head, with each memory was attached an emotion that filled me up. "No...stop!" I cried out against the memory, the emotions were just too much! "Stop it!"

I could feel myself return back to reality, collapsing out of the chair and falling to the ground, my eyes fluttering in and our as darkness sank in and I fell asleep. When I awoke, whenever it was, I felt heavy; like I was attached to anchors on a ship and tossed overboard. I slowly stood up, shaking my head, I couldn't understand what had happened; I dived into Sora's heart many times to connect or unravel his memory and I had never had this issue in the past. _I was a Nobody in the past,_ I had thought – which was true when I was a Nobody these things didn't affect me...was it because I was a Somebody that messing with memories affects me this profoundly? It was a struggle, but I finally stood up. As I rested against the table in the room I turned to bed...and found it empty. My new heart began to race like mad, I forced myself to continue walking despite my dizziness.

"Sora? Sora?!" I called throughout the ship, stumbling out of the door I called out his name throughout the ship. "Sora?! SORA?!" To my horror I saw the ship's exit ramp had been lowered, my mind raced with all the most horrible things: Sora stumbled outside while I was unconscious, a Heartless sneaked inside the ship and took his heart, or even someone broke in the ship and kidnapped him! I pushed my body to run outside, still very dizzy I forced my body to obey my will and push myself to the First District. Trying so hard to think of positive thoughts as I pushed through the door to the First District, maybe he was somewhere safe...maybe Naruto found him...maybe, if, when, these words were useless until I saw him safe with my own eyes. I was...I am responsible for him; I stole his memories, I robbed him of his life and nearly succeeded in enslaving him for the Organization. He never hated me...never frowned at me...he just smiled that goofy smile and said everything would be all right. I owed him, I owed him far much more to see anything wrong happen to him. I was rushing up the steps to the entrance to the Second District when I bumped into someone, grabbing onto the rails to prevent myself from falling over I looked at the person I ran into: sadly neither person I was hoping to see.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there..."

* * *

I'm not sure why I thought Sasuke and I would be able to find the Heartless, but for some reason I had a really strong feeling we would be able to track it down. Donald and Goofy clearly knew their way around the town, they insisted we check an area in The Third District for it usually was a concentration of Heartless. Yet, even with them guiding us it was like the Keyblade was pulling my heart toward the darkness, like it was crying out to blaze forth and push back the shadows of this tainted world. Which was all in all…a bit unsettling, I didn't like the fact that it could influence my emotional state. I shook my head to clear away the howling song of the blade in my head, apart from apparently making me want to track and beat heartless the Keyblade seemed to be making me more…me.

Ever since I'd found out about Kairi and the secrets that had been kept for me I'd been…somber, much more subdued than usual. But suddenly that burden didn't seem so huge. I mean I had found a sister even if it wasn't necessarily the one I'd been looking for. I could find Kairi, I could keep her safe, I could help Sora wake up. I was Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, chosen of the Keyblade, jailer of the kyuubi no kitsune, son of the yellow flash, brother of a princess of heart and a witch. I would find the Heartless. And it would be no more.

Sasuke was looking at me oddly off to one side "Hey dobe you seem a bit off, anything wrong?" I shook my head to clear away the burning need the Keyblade had to cleanse the impurities from the world. "I think this town might not be big enough for the Keyblade and the heartless. Nami mentioned the heartless can sort of sense the Keyblade, apparently my Keyblade can sort of sense them too, and it really isn't a fan." Sasuke raised an eyebrow in skepticism "Nami?"

I grinned unapologetically at my friend "She's my baby sister teme, I can call her whatever I want, besides I think Nami is cute." I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Sasuke averted his eyes a bit and I could swear his cheeks were just a bit more red than usual. Oh…apparently Sasuke didn't disagree with me about the cuteness thing at all. This…this I could have some fun with. Making a mental note to find some horrible ways to tease my best friend and sister with this little nugget of information I got back to my point. "As I was trying to say before we got distracted by your lurid fantasies of my sweet naïve little sister, I think the Keyblade will actually PULL us toward the heartless if I let it."

Sasuke's face previously a light shade of pink turned a blazing tomato red and he started to sputter unintelligibly "lurid…what…ridiculous…dobe" I couldn't help myself, I just busted up laughing. Sasuke was starting to look a little pissed now and the pout on his face only served to drive even deeper into my gales of laughter, I literally collapsed to the ground clutching my sides. Kami it felt good to just be messing with the teme, to be able to laugh and smile and joke. Something about Nami's presence in my life had started to calm my twisting guilt about not knowing about Kairi.

I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye and pulled myself of the cobblestones and to my feet. My friend just sat there and glared stonily at me "are you done?" It took almost everything I had not to lapse into another bout of hysterical laughter at the expression on his face. "I'm done for now, but don't think I wont mess with you about this again." He scowled harder at me "Shouldn't you be all over protective of your new baby sister?" I chuckled and shook my head "don't forget Sasuke, I saw you at Castle Oblivion when she was curled up against your chest I don't have to worry about protecting her from you, not that I wont kick your ass if you hurt her." He just scoffed and looked away "as if you could" but I saw another blush of faint red on his face, oh yes, this would give me hours of entertainment.

I called _Never Again_ to my hand and held the balanced on my open hand 'alright buddy' I whispered into my mind 'give me a scent here' the Keyblade twitched and then shifted slightly to the right leaning down at an angle 'much appreciated' and strangely enough I got what sort of felt like the mental equivalent of a dismissive wave. I looked over at my friend, "Keyblade says that way." I said gesturing off in the direction it had shifted. Sasuke just shrugged "makes as much sense as anything else that's happened recently."

After about a half hour of walking the cobblestone streets and a several reorientations with the Keyblade we finally came to what appeared to be a small dark alley. There was a long shallow pool of water leading to a metal gate that appeared to have a small section missing, and in front of it was the heartless. It stood about seven feet tall with odd protrusions jutting from its head the spaces in the shape of an empty heart. It help a massive blue sword that was oddly in pieces without any of them falling off. Oh…and it had wings. 'because that's fair' I though bitterly 'I totally have wings' I felt a buzzing behind my eyes and felt _Never Again_ shift slightly. Without any sort of idea why I pointed it at the heartless in front of me and whispered _**Bijuudama**_ and a sphere of pitch black energy slammed headlong into the heartless…and just vaporized it.

Donald and Goofy, who had their weapons out and ready were frozen in awe and Sasuke looked over at me and raised an eyebrow "not bad dobe that was hell of an attack, when did you learn to do that?" I glanced worriedly down at my Keyblade and back up at my friend, my mouth twisted into a worried frown "I didn't."

**Hey guys this is King, glad to see you're reading this newest chapter. We had a bit of trouble doing this one right but I think it came out perfectly. I feel like we're getting this more and more with every chapter and I'm glad you guys are with us for it. Once again it'd really help us out for you guys to review, even just seeing them really helps our confidence and makes us write faster lol. As you may have noticed the beginning of the chapter contains our new OC Ryu we hope you guys will give him a chance and we're trying to breathe as much life into him as possible. Be sure to let us know in your reviews how you like him.**

_Michael Fri of Black Scepter here, this chapter was a tricky one. We were going to do something different for a long while, then we came up with this OC character and King wanted to spend time with the characters themselves: he felt like the points in the last two chapters just didn't reveal enough depth. So we scratched the original idea and decided in the spirit of the first KH game we have them go to Traverse Town. I am not complaining: I freaking loved Traverse Town, there was mystery, safety with a slight ring of fear and danger, all with an awesome blues tune. Traverse Town was an awesome hub world for the first game, so I was excited to recreate the feel of safety and yet danger in Traverse Town. Anyhoo, fandoming of the world aside this chapter as is the next one is meant to have depth as well as action. We do a pretty good job at setting things up for each other to write, so there will be a lot of this...joy, uncertainty, and suspense when it comes to plot twists. Until then, tell us your thoughts! Is the story too weird? Is it the best thing ever? Does Namine have way too many admirers or does she need a harem...actually no, don't even consider that, that's not gonna happen. We don't know these things though until you tell us what you think, so please feel free to tell us! Until next time, King and Mike are out, seeya next chapter._


	4. Over my Head

"...-on you..."

"...Come on..."

"...Come on you lazy bum, wake up."

Voices rang in my head when I woke up; white assaulted my eyes as I spun out of my bed. Falling to the ground out of, apparently a bed, I was so dizzy: I couldn't make heads or tails of anything around me. I stumbled...there was a girl on the ground, I couldn't see her...I stumbled through this small confined space...there is a ramp lowered...I see lights of a town...I see a place that is familiar, an alley...I stumble there and soon I can't move anymore. My eyes flutter close, flutter asleep...until a girlish giggle rings in my ears, my head lifts and I see someone...a girl with bright short red hair. She bends down to eye level and smiles, "Come on you lazy bum, get up." My eyes shoot open again, I looked around the small dingy alley I was in with a groan...was I dreaming? It felt real. The girl seemed real...even though I was alone, must have been a dream. I stood up, trying to get a grasp of where I am...wait, who am I again? As soon I even begin to question myself my answer kicks in, how could I forget? My name is Sora. Memories began to piece themselves together, the Island, the Keyblade, Donald, Goofy, Riku and Kai...who? I shook my head, didn't matter at this moment. As I walked out of the alley my memories kicked in and I remembered where I was: Traverse Town. How did I get back here? Maybe it was after when I closed the door to darkness... I can't seem to remember what happened; maybe Donald and Goofy were close by.

I walked out into the quiet First District; since nobody seemed to be outside I opened one of the doors to the shops, seeing if I could find somebody that could give me some information.

"Hello how can I-Sora?!" the person behind the counter gasped, "It's you! You're back!"

I recognized him a few times, he would take the shop when Cid was out. Since they are gone now, guess it's his shop. "Yeah it's me. How's the shop?"

"Oh it's going well, how is Donald and Goofy?"

"I...that's why I am here..." I began to explain what I knew, which wasn't much but he seemed to be able to understand it all the same.

"That seems like a problem..." he nodded, "I wish I could help you, but Traverse Town has it's own problems: it's cursed."

"Cursed?"

"Yeah...people who go visit the Third District suddenly vanish! No trace! We had to border up the whole area, we thought it was Heartless but...we didn't see any in the Third District."

"A curse huh..." I frowned, "I can go check it out if you want."

"H-huh? You'd go do that?"

"Yeah! I'll go check it out and put a stop to whatever's going on." I said, heading to the door of the shop – the man giving a sigh. "You're far too nice sometimes Sora."

I gave smirk and a shrug to the shop owner before stepping outside, he had said the Third District...so I had to go check it out. If it was Heartless then I definitely had to stop them somehow. If it wasn't, well, I would still deal with it anyway. Pushing the doors open to the Second District I found a familiar yet eerie sight of the quiet empty town, taking a deep breath I walked into the sector. My steps gave an echo that actually made me wince with each step, it was like that for the longest time...until I heard something...voices from the distance.

"...was gone from the ship! I came out here to find him when I ran into you guys!"

I couldn't tell where they were coming from, the echo was sending me spinning until a familiar quacking voice spoke, "We got to find him!"

Donald! That was Donald's voice! "Do you have any idea where he might be?" a voice I didn't recognize rang out, it was a deepish voice, very straightforward: whereas the next one was full of life.

"Sora's a Keyblade Master right?" I gave a start, they were looking for me? "If he is he'll be drawn to the Heartless, like I am. Nami, you said you heard a rumor of something in the Third District right? Let's go have a look, maybe he's already there?"

Nami? I blinked at that strange name before I realized the voices had faded out, they were gone. They thought I was at the Third District! They were heading to a trap, I had to hurry. Leaping off the balcony I meant to follow them when five inky black shadows moved from the ground to me. Like instinct the Keyblade flashed into my hand, gripping the weapon tightly with both hands I swung at the first Heartless. Once that vanished two of them tried to gang up on me, I spun my Keyblade upwards – carrying them and myself into the air and unleashing aerial combos on them as I was in the air; slamming them back to the ground. The last two distanced themselves from me as I touched the ground, I pulled back my Keyblade and threw it: it spun in the air and cut through one of the Heartless, bounced off two walls, and hit the Heartless that was attempting to jump me from behind. I caught my Keyblade expertly in the air, with the Heartless done with I quickly moved to the alleyway to the Third District. Of course as I got closer, Heartless lined the alleyway.

"Out of my way!" I yelled, charging forward. As I got closer I leaped to the walls, running sideways on them while slicing my Keyblade through the air: I slid on the ground when I landed: knocking more into the air and slashing them as well as they were flung about the air. The last set I threw my Keyblade at them, which was recalled back to my hand as it finished destroying them. Grabbing the door to the Third District I wrenched it open and what I saw caused my jaw to drop, in the time it took for me to get to through the Heartless and to them: they were fighting some large monster...something I didn't recognize, it...kinda looked like the Guard Armor Heartless but, it's body was weird and the feeling I got from it...

"NAMI!"

My head looked up to see a blonde girl flung back, Donald and Goofy were trapped on the other side fighting the thing's arms. A dark haired boy was pinned against the wall from the other arm, and there was a blond boy with a...wait...a Keyblade?! The boy with the Keyblade was by himself as the huge Guard Armor-like thing stumbled to him. He looked...not sure if he was frozen, unsure...or full of doubt. Either way, I had to do something: I leaped off of the railing, Keyblade in hand, and swung down just as the large monster charged at him. My slash sent the creature stumbling back, before it could get back up I threw the Keyblade again and caused him to fall over. It wouldn't be long before he got back up, I turned around and held my hand out to the blonde boy with the Keyblade.

"Are you all right?"

* * *

I couldn't help but cry out in panic as I saw my baby sister hurled across the courtyard by the swing of that weird animated armor. My chest constricted as a sense of dread welled up inside me, I had just found her, I couldn't lose her now, couldn't fail her. 'Damn it Uzumaki, your little sister needs you, now is not the time to fall apart' I was so caught up in my self-flagellation that I probably would have been street pizza if it wasn't for the brown haired kid dropping down with a mighty swing to press back the attack of the strange armor. He turned to me with a huge infectious grin and offered me a hand up "Are you alright?"

I couldn't help but return the grin, this was Sora, Id never seen him awake but it was still easy to recognize the kid. In all my self pity and fear I'd forgotten something important, I wasn't alone anymore, I had a family now. Besides I was Naruto Uzumaki like hell I was gonna let some oversized tin can psych me out. I pulled myself to my feet and dusted myself off "I'm…" my introduction was cut off by a massive crash and I was a bit surprised to see the armor thing hurled backwards by a giant fireball 'Wow' I marveled in my head 'Sasuke is really taking this personally' I shook my head and turned back to Sora "Sorry about that like I was saying my names Naruto Uzumaki, I'm Kairi's brother, you must be my future brother-in-law."

"Oh good, I'm-wait, WHAT?!" the boy spluttered, his jaw dropping so low I thought it would crash through the ground.

"No time for pleasantries kid, we've got a can to kick."

As if on cue Sasuke came hurtling back the way the armor had gone and slammed into the wall, I walked over to my friend and offered him a hand up "Wow, those sharingan of yours are impressive, the way you were able to tell exactly how hard to throw yourself out of the way to simulate splattering on that wall. I'd have never guessed you weren't really getting your ass kicked."

Sasuke sneered and smacked my hand out of the way 'He's so much friendlier now' I thought to myself sarcastically. He pulled himself up and dusted himself off "And you've sure gotten sneaky with those shadow clones, it almost looked like you were standing there frozen in place like a little girl."

I grinned at my friend, "momentary overload, sometimes my brain has to take a second to process all the awesome. Don't worry your duck-shaped little head we'll finish this before you can chip another nail" I turned to the armor and my grin turned into and angry snarl "Nobody hits my baby sister!" I turned to Sora who was watching our byplay with an eager bouncy kind of energy 'man the kid's like extract of puppy, and I thought I was cheerful and bouncy' "Alright boys here's the gameplan, I'll come in low and hit the legs hard, Sasuke flank him and get between him and Nami, she's behind him at the moment but I haven't seen her move since she got hit."

I looked over at Sora "Short stack you're on air to ground, come in high and aim for the upper chest and head. If I can shake the legs and Sasuke hits the lower body from behind a solid hit to the upper torso area should put it on the ground." I turned to Donald and Goofy, "Donald, use that magic of yours and keep us protected, Goofy that shield, packs quite a punch, see if you can distract him with a few blows!" Sora just grinned at me, "Sure thing Naruto, alright guys lets do what we do best: hit stuff till it stops getting up." I laughed and Sasuke snorted 'Wow I think I'm gonna like this kid.' I nodded to Sora and Sasuke and then we all took off almost simultaneously towards the armor.

I came in low as promised. I hadn't been able to use any jutsu since Nami's little trick but I'm also a bit faster and stronger than normal 'there are definitely upsides to this Keyblade thing' the Keyblade itself was bigger than a kunai so I had to improvise a bit. I body slam the things knee from a side angle to shake its stance and along the way braced the keyblade the front of my body like a shield to increase the weight behind the strike. The things knee only buckled slightly but that split second was all my best friend needed to slam into the back of the leg I had hit and knock the leg out from under it. With the leg jutting forward and its balance shaky on just one leg all it could do was fall as Sora and Goofy smashed into its upper chest like a wrecking ball. The sound of it crashing to the ground wasn't even finished echoing before we were all drawing out weapons and lunging straight at the odd twisting red lines that described the eyes on its odd flame shaped head.

"Aeroga!" Donald shouted, suddenly a violent wind storm kicked up around us: the winds so strong that as the armor-like monster made contact the wind buffered it back and halted it's attack. It was right then we decided to end this: my Keyblade sunk into the left eye, Sora's into the right and Sasuke's chokuto coated in lightning chakra into the space between from above its head. I blinked as the armor disappeared in a swirl of darkness.

"Well…that thing is clearly…very dead. Anybody know what the hell it was?" Sasuke just shrugged and Sora just grinned apologetically "Sorry no clue...it's not a Heartless that's for sure. We made a pretty good team though huh?" I smiled at him and nodded then remembered where I should be and rushed over to where my sister had landed. Sasuke was already there cradling her gently as he lifted her from the rubble of the wall she'd crashed into. 'I'm sorry Nami, how could I have let this happen to you?" I was shaken out of my reverie by Sasuke's voice "She's breathing fine and there's no blood. We should check her for a concussion and any broken bones but barring that she should be fine."

I smiled gratefully at him and Donald hurried forward, raising his staff at my sister and shouted "Curaga!" green glowing shapes danced above her head for a moment and she slowly started to stir. She glanced up at Sasuke with a slight blush on her face and he stared down at her in worry. I coughed loudly "Ahem. Morning sleepy head, hey teme, if you're done feeling up my baby sister she seems fine now and can probably stand on her own." Sasuke glared at me and put her down quickly, red staining his cheeks as he muttered something about "dobes" and "target practice". I turned to my blushing sister and grinned "So what brings a nice girl like you to a place like this?"

* * *

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy called out, giving me a crushing hug that had me stumble backwards. My own laughter bubbled on out as I was reunited with my two friends, once all the hugs were done I stood up and turned to the others.

"Glad to see you are awake, I was getting worried." The boy named Naruto said, "So...you're Sora huh."

"Yeah that's me...Naruto, right?" I asked, the blond nodded. The dark haired boy I believe called Sasuke was leaning against the wall, arms crossed while the girl Nami or something had walked to join us.

"Yeah that's me, Naruto Uzumaki. I owe you a lot."

"Huh? Oh that? No really it's what I do," I folded my arms behind my head with a smile. "We're both Keyblade Masters and all it seems."

Naruto seemed...confused for a moment, "Yeah...that is true, but that's not really what I meant...I was talking about what you did for my sister."

"Huh? You have a sister?" I asked, looking over at 'Nami', "Is this her? She looks like you."

"Well it- yes she is but I was referring to Kairi."

"...who?"

The moment that word left my lips it had a reaction, Donald and Goofy looked flabbergasted, Naruto was even more confused and 'Nami' was suddenly horrified.

"Sora this isn't funny," 'Nami' spoke, "He's talking about Kairi, you know, Kairi?"

"I do?" I asked, "Huh...okay, sure, Kairi – yeah I know her!"

"You're just saying that!" Donald quacked, "Come on Sora don't kid around! You saved her remember? She would be sad to hear you say these things!"

I was starting to feel tense...these guys seemed very insistent on this, even though I clearly don't remember this 'Kairi' everyone was acting like I should. I couldn't do anything...say anything...I could only shrug, even then that seemed to make things even worse.

"What's going on Namine?" Sasuke demanded to Nami-erm, Namine, "I thought you said he knew Kairi."

"He does! He should! I don't..." suddenly Namine went very pale, "...Oh no...no I knew something was wrong..."

"What happened?" Sasuke asked, easing off his interrogation.

"The memory...I must have put it back in wrong, or...or maybe the memory was too corrupted...that could be why Sora can't remember Kairi...no no no what have I done? I shouldn't have pushed this...I should have waited..."

I felt something...a great sadness as I watched her, I felt pity for her in a way, she seemed to be really broken up that I couldn't remember this Kairi. I wanted to say something, anything to make her feel better but I had a feeling there was nothing I could say that would make it better. Namine finally turned back to me.

"You can't remember anything? Truly?"

"I..." I paused, trying to search my memory for something...anything...a hint of this person's presence on the sandy shores of my home Destiny-

"_Kairi! Remember what you said to me before! I'll always be with you too!"_

I stumbled back as my own voice assaulted my brain, I couldn't see the others...all I could see was this image of a girl with red hair desperately holding onto my hand.

"_I'll come back to you! I promise!"_

"_I know you will!"_

I found myself lying on my back, looking up at the worried faces of everyone. Giving a groan I sat back up, trying to ignore everyone hovering around me anxiously.

"I...I saw someone...a girl with red hair..."

"Kairi!" Namine exclaimed, "That was Kairi, do you remember now?"

The expression on my face must of dashed all those hopes, because Namine's smile dropped down to a frown. "So much for that...at least the memory is there, somewhere."

"If the memory is there then it shouldn't be an issue," Sasuke spoke out from his corner, "he seems to be recalling her in some way, perhaps the memory will simply...return over time."

"Yes...you might be right," Namine nodded, the guilt seemed to wash off her face a bit...but only by a bit. "This could be an issue though when we get to Destiny Islands..."

"Destiny Islands? That's where Kairi is?" Naruto jumped in, however I had my own problems with that plan.

"Whoa whoa wait! I can't go back to Destiny Islands yet!" The three of them turned to look at me, "I can't go back until I find my friend Riku-"

"-And King Mickey!" Donald added.

"-They were both lost behind the Door to Darkness, I got to find them and bring them home!"

"King?" Sasuke scoffed, "You have to be joking..."

"Sora I've got to find my sister," Naruto insisted, "you may not remember her completely yet, but she's the reason I am even here!"

I wanted to say something else but out of the corner of my eye I saw the shopkeeper, from Cid's old shop, rush over here with a letter in hand. "Sora! You did it! You defeated the monster!"

"Well it wasn't just me," I said with a grin, "They all helped too."

"Well thank goodness for that, the town can sleep easier right now. But I have something for you Sora, this came in from Moogle Mail, from Cid!"

My eyes widened and I took the letter, saying I quick thank you I rip the letter open and begin to read Cid's not so neat handwriting.

_**Sora,**_

_**Merlin assures me the Moogles will somehow be able to find you wherever you are, so here it goes. We're all settling down well in Hollow Bastion, Leon's heading up the recovery and we're getting closer to getting our old lives back. Sometimes we get some Offworlders, folks like you, from time to time and we heard an interesting rumor from one of them. That girl, the one you went to hell and back for, Kairi was seen on the world of coordinates 171512: 'Aloha Islands'. We thought it was weird since you restored the worlds...but we decided to send this your way, you three could go check it out: might be nothing, but the stranger's description of her was dead on for Kairi. Anyway, it's your call kiddo.**_

_**Cid,**_

_**P.S.**_

_**Stop by, everyone's anxious to hear from you again.**_

My eyes bore into every word on the paper, each time my eyes settled on Kairi's name flashes of a girl with short red hair would appear. Absently I handed the letter to Naruto, whose eyes widened once he finished.

"I thought you said she was on Destiny Islands?" Naruto asked Namine as Sasuke took the letter to read himself.

"She should be...Sora sealed the Door to Darkness and restored the worlds..."

"Maybe the Worlds are in trouble again," Goofy suggested, "Traverse Town is still here after all."

"Goofy has a point..." Namine agreed, "Traverse Town only appears to serve as a safe world for those who lost theirs...something has been going on for the past year."

"Year?!" I spat out, Donald and Goofy seemed surprised as well, "What do you mean a year?!"

"Oh...um..." Namine frowned, "I...appear to have more explaining to do..."

"Actually we have two issues," Sasuke cut in, "One, this 'Aloha Islands' and...that."

He gestured to me, specifically my clothes, I looked down at my pants and my eyes widened: they were just above my knees and now that I actually stopped to think about it my shirt felt a bit tight...I must have been too pumped up from the fights to even think about it until now. Namine gave a little giggle along with Donald and Goofy, Naruto looked confused.

"Okay...so his clothes are weird..."

"No, they're small dobe." Sasuke corrected, my eyebrow raised at the odd name, "He can't possibly concentrate on a fight with clothes that hinder him."

"Oh, good point..." Naruto frowned, "I guess...we're going clothes shopping."

My eyes widened as the group nodded amongst themselves, I suddenly felt like I was a kid again and outgrown my favorite T-shirt. "W-wait, guys, seriously? Clothes shopping? You're joking right? Right...guys...?"

* * *

I stood in the moonlight as the tide rolled up the beach, lazily licking my feet. I couldn't help but feel a bit lost at times like this, when everything slowed down enough to think about how alone I really was. I forced my thought back into line 'Damn it Ryu…keep it together, this is important.' I heard the sound of feet crunching through the sand behind me and raised an eyebrow without glancing over "Do you always keep your partners waiting so long?" A low feminine voice responded back "Apologies my friend, I was thrown off balance by your message, and you aren't the only one with plans in the works. I came as quickly as was possible."

I turned to glance at the beautiful woman standing next to me, no one could claim Ultimecia wasn't totally stunning, though she also absolutely reeked of subtle crazy. Because really, who wears a feathered headdress? "I understand that you must be busy, I appreciate your time. Do this for me and we call it even." The right side of her face quirked up "Of course my friend, I'm still grateful for everything you did for me. Your enemies will know true suffering."

See what I mean? Who talks like that? I berated myself mentally 'God, Ryu, where do you find these people?' I smiled engagingly at her "I appreciate that, just make sure not to hurt the blonde girl." I swear she actually pouted, albeit so slightly I almost missed it. I surreptitiously took a small step away from her so none of the crazy could rub off on me. "I do have some information, I've heard that Organization XIII may be on the island."

I smiled a bit viciously "Oh trust me, I know" 'And you were so right. My enemies will know true suffering' I shook off that thought as she departed from my presence and shifted my mind back to what I had in store for the wayward heroes. 'Well' I thought 'It's gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight' I guess the crazy must have been more contagious than I thought, because I couldn't help the rolling laugh that cracked the still night air on the beach. Maybe I shouldn't be so judgmental about mental health.

* * *

**Okay everyone, Michael Fri of Black Scepter here, this chapter took awhile because of the usual: work, school, end of the earth, Miley Cyrus writing this chapter and then we had to fire her for being a wrecking ball...and licking all the damn time. Anyhoo, before we sign off for this round we wanted to talk about our chapter titles, the ones that appear in the dropbox menu. All of our chapters are based on song titles:**

**Love Me When I'm Gone, 3 Doors Down**

**Life Starts Now, Three Days Grace**

**Distance Disturbs Me, Set it Off**

**Over My Head (Cable Car), The Fray (originally, but we listened to A Day To Remember's Cover)**

**We have very specific reasons for these song choices, for the first one the idea of "Love Me When I'm Gone" applies to Naruto strongly, he finds this sister he never knew he had and even though he's never met her he's in love with the idea of having a family again. It can apply to Namine too, but not as strongly. As for "Life Starts Now", that's ALL Namine – with the incident turning her from Nobody to Somebody she now finds the life she thought she was being denied is now. For her, her life and family start now.**

_**Ok King here. Thanks again for your readership. For chapters three and four the song choices were mostly based on Ryu. Chapter Three distance disturbs me was all about how Namine effects him and puts him off balance. Four was actually more about everybody than just Ryu. Kairi is very much on Sora and Narutos mind. And Sora has forgotten about Kairi and that applies as well. Not to mention Ryu is in over his head even if he wouldn't admit it. Well be sure to read and review, we cant wait to hear your feedback. **_


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